Sylvania



No. 6l9,990. Patented Feb. 2|, I899. H. 8. POWER & J. A. DEVURE.

RAILWAY CAR BRAKE SHOE.

(Application filed Apr. 5, 1898.)

(No Model.)

UNITED STATE PATENT OFFICE.

HOWVARD S. POWER AND JAMES A. DEVORE, OF PITTSBURG, PENN- SYLVANIA.

RAILWAY-CAR BRAKE-SHOE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 619,990, dated February 21, 1899.

Application filed April 5, 1898. Serial No. 673,668. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, HOWARD S. POWER and JAMES A. DEVORE, citizens of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvemen ts in Railway-Oar Brake-Shoes; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention is a railway-car brake-shoe for use on street-railway cars; and the objects of our invention are, first, to provide a brake that will work independently of all other brakes on the car; second, to aiford an appliance by which a car may be quickly and effectually stopped, whether in case of a refusal of action on the part of the other brakes or when otherwise needed; third, to provide an emergency brake-shoe which will act only upon the rear wheels of the car, producinga dragging influence which will prevent the car from being derailed and at the same time lifting the wheels from the rails and by means of a flange at point of shoe locking the shoe to the rail. We attain these objects by the following mechanism, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical elevation of the entire brake-shoe, and Fig. 2 a similar view showing the brake-shoe in use. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through the center of brakeshoe A, showing the shoe on the rail and also showing the center wheels 0 and hangers B on either side of shoe.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the views.

The brake shoe A when in use reaches slightly beyond the center of the wheels, lifting them from the rails and by means of a flange J locks them to the rails.

The brake-shoe A is suspended from the car by hangers B, one on either side of brakeshoe A, which are connected by bolts E to center wheels 0 on brake-shoe A. The wheels 0 revolve on a spindle D as the shoe is lowered or raised, thus allowing the brake-shoe A to drop on the rail a few inches forward of the wheel. The brake-shoe A then takes a course backward, catching the wheel, lifting it from the rail, and at the same instant looking the brake-shoe A to the rail by means of a flange J at the point of brake-shoe A. The sole G is fastened to the brake-shoe A by means of bolts H, which are secured by nuts I. The hangers B are connected to a crossbeam on the car by bolts F. The fork K is fastened to the brake-shoe A by boltsM and N and is connected to the brake-shaft O of the car by chain L.

The brake-shaft O is operated by means of a beveled gear attached to an independent brake-staff A, and when the brake-shoe A is up one end of the chain L is wrapped around shaft 0 sufficiently to raise brake-shoe A into proper position when not in use.

When the brake-shoe A is needed, all that is necessary is to release the brake-staff A, allowing chain L to unwrap. The brake-shoe A will instantly drop to the rail, allowing the wheels to run upon it.

The function of the revolving wheels 0 is to allow the brake-shoe A to drop flat to the rail a few inches forward of the wheel when the brake is applied. Thus the brake-shoe A assumes its proper position for the wheels of the car to run upon, and thus prevents the shoe dropping point downward to the rail, as might occur if not regulated by the revolving wheels 0. The only flange is of three inches, more or less, upon the inner side of brake-shoe A and upon the rear or extreme point of shoe and works between the rail and flange of the wheel. It is V-shaped or tapered, and as the wheels run upon the shoe the flange of the wheel strikes the tapered flange on the shoe, forcing it against the rail, thus locking the shoe to the rail. The special advantage of the flange, being of but a few inches in length is to allow the brakeshoe to be applied on curves with the same facility as on a straightway track.

Having thus described our invention, we claim Emergency brake-shoe A provided with hangers B, one on either side of brake-shoe A attached to the car by bolts F and to brakeshoe A by revolving wheels 0, one on either In testimony whereof we affix our signaside of brake-shoe A, in combination with tures in presence of two witnesses.

flange J locking brake-shoe A to the rail, and HOWARD S. POWER. V-shaped bracket K which tends to keep the JAMES A. DEVORE.

5 brake-shoe A in a position parallel with the \Vitnesses:

track when not in use, substantially as shown J AMES BRYAR, J1'.,

and for the purpose specified. CHARLES PARKINSON. 

